Lindsey Graham Is Fine With Keeping Migrants in Horrific Conditions for '400 Days' if Necessary
Speaking on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham said that migrants should be kept in detention for as long as necessary, regardless of the appalling conditions in detention facilities.
Graham spoke in reference to his visit to two migrant detention centers with Vice President Mike Pence and other Republican lawmakers on Friday.
“I don’t care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days, we’re not going to let those men go that I saw,” Graham told Fox host Maria Bartiromo. “It would be dangerous.”
That’s right: Graham is casually implying that he can somehow tell the men he saw crammed into a cage were “dangerous,” based on nothing other than the fact that they crossed the border, a misdemeanor on par with failing to appear in court or public intoxication.
In his tweets after the visit, Graham merely thanked Border Patrol, calling them heroes.
While both Pence and President Trump tried to spin the visit to the facilities—during which detainees told reporters they hadn’t been allowed to shower—as proof that migrants were being treated well, Graham said the visit was evidence of overcrowding.
Graham told Bartiromo that the facility was “overwhelmed.” But he emphasized that being crammed in a cage without access to showers is just what you get for the terrible crime of crossing our border.
“What I saw is a bunch of people who have been here before, broke the law before, and we’re not going to let them go,” Graham said.
“All of them broke our law,” Graham added. “Many of them have done it before. And we’re not going to let them go. This is not a concentration camp that I saw, it is a facility overwhelmed.”
After the visit, Pence had the gall to claim on Twitter that the facility was overcrowded because of Democrats refusal to fund operations at the border.
This is pretty hilarious, given that just a few weeks ago House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke with progressive legislators to support an emergency border funding bill, despite its lack of protections for migrants. Seems like that was worth it!